TSMC show-and-tell: a 15.1% total area efficient champion CIGS module

TSMC recently announced a 1.09 m2 champion copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) module with a 15.1% total area efficiency. The module was produced using the current equipment at the company’s 100 MW capacity facility in Taiwan with its process licensed from Stion. The company claims a world record for monolithic thin-film modules, although Miasolé (purchased by Hanergy) demonstrated a 15.5% aperture area efficient 1.68 m2 discretely integrated (non-monolithic) flexible module.

While Miasolé’s record module’s purpose was to facilitate acquisition as the company burned through $500 million of venture capital and was at risk of bankruptcy, TSMC’s announcement declared TSMC is here to stay. The company already enjoys cheaper labor than CIGS competitors, such as Solar Frontier, SoloPower, Avancis, and NuvoSun. Furthermore, the company’s sputtering process licensed from Stion and module architecture using glass to encapsulate cells constitute one of the cheapest CIGS technology to produce and expand production capacity.

Now that TSMC also has one of the highest module efficiencies in the industry, the semiconductor giant is in a similar position to Hanergy, which recently acquired Solibro and Miasolé. Both are large companies with strong CIGS technologies, but are still deliberating if and when to increase production capacity. If either company decides to expand capacity in their respective countries, they will overtake Solar Frontier on cost – followed by market share – due to low-cost labor and high module efficiencies. However, with the market still severely oversupplied, Hanergy and TSMC will likely wait until they can sell modules for more than their cost of goods sold.